New Daycare and Training Zone for Dogs Opens in Williamstown
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — You can now bring your dogs to a new daycare and training spot.
Owners and friends Michelle Marrocco and Tiffany Boyden opened Pup Place last month at 895 Simonds Road, the former location of a martial arts studio.
"We do daycare full days and half days, and then we do what we like to call lifestyle training, which is just worked into our models," Marrocco said. "So generally, people don't want their dogs to jump on them, or counter surf, or steal food, and we don't want those things either. So we just reinforce that all day, every day.
"And then we have additional training options like leash training, so your dog will walk politely. We do reactivity training with dogs who are nervous or scared or have issues with other people or other dogs."
This is not their first venture. The two have been walking and training dogs as Berkshire Pup People and it took about five years to find the right space to open a doggy daycare.
"We started with walking, and then added on training and pet sitting and pet sitting. So we have a team of independent contractors," Boyden said.
Marrocco said a brick and mortar building for their business was always the goal while they built up a customer base.
"The idea was that we would do that to build up trust in the community and get to know the market better, with the goal of opening a dog daycare, because there's a huge amount of people with dogs here in the Berkshires in general, and I think we are able to serve maybe 11 percent of the market, which is like families with one or two dogs, and there's three other dog daycares in the region, or dog day trains sort of places, and there's simply not enough for what people need," she said.
Boyden, who is a dog behaviorist, said she fell in love with dog training during the pandemic through helping a neighbor with their dog.
"There was a hole in the market because the dog daycare that I actually brought my own dog to closed, and my neighbor was like, 'I was working remote this whole time, but now I have to go in the office. What do I do with my dog? What do you do with your dog?' And I was like, 'I have a remote job, so he stays home.' And that's kind of where the idea started. We started walking and training him. Then he started coming to my house for care," Boyden said.
After realizing the gap in the market, Boyden reached out to Marrocco, knowing they are both dog lovers, and asked if she wanted to start a business with her.
Boyden learned training from an online course and hands-on experience. Marrocco has a background in teaching and said humane education is similar to how dogs learn. The also completed the E for All Berkshire County business training program.
"What sets me apart a little bit from other trainers in our area is that instead of just basic training, I really enjoy the reactivity training, anything that's behavioral. I love to see a dog struggling and find the root cause of why they're struggling, and then figure out how can we work together to help, rather than just say, 'Hey, this is a behavior. We're going to just train you to stop it,'" she said. "It's why are you having that behavior, and how can we help you through that so you no longer feel like you need to do that behavior? So that's a lot of what we do here in general."
They use positive reinforcement only and avoid aversive methods, which can hide behavior problems. She said all dogs learn a shared set of commands, such as waiting at gates and being comfortable with handling.
At the daycare, dogs rotate between rest, enrichment activities like ripping cardboard, and play so they learn to settle down.
The two said they found the space last October and did a lot of work to prepare it. That included pulling up carpets, fixing walls, and painting. New floors went in, a second door, and the park fence. The kennels in the relaxation zone were made from dressing rooms bought when a mall closed. They held their grand opening and open house late last month.
They are open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with drop-off at 8 to 9:30 a.m. and pickup at 4 to 5:30 p.m. The half-day window is 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
They also have an optional shuttle that is one-way or round trip, for an extra fee, in a 10- to 12-passenger van with dog seat belts and barriers.
They hope to bring more classes and have people utilize the park they built as well.
"The goal is that next year we'll start doing training classes because there aren't any really, or very few around here, especially ones that people can go to with their dogs. So we'll start doing those, and then because we have our private park, we want to start doing park memberships in the next couple of years, so that there is a controlled space where folks can take their dogs and know that they are safe," Marrocco said.
You can find out more information and sign up on their website.
Tags: new business, dogs,
